White-Collar Jobs Disappear, AI Targets Middle Managers, JPMorgan Doubles Down on Office Work
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
Release Date: 10/29/2025
How Top CEOs Stay Relevant, Resilient, and Ready for What’s Next with McKinsey’s Senior Partner
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
When a leader reaches the top, the climb doesn’t stop, it just changes shape. The real challenge isn’t getting to the corner office, it’s knowing how to stay relevant, resilient, and ready for what’s next. The best CEOs don’t just lead well once; they lead well through change, mastering the cycles of their own growth. In this episode, I sit down with Kurt Strovink, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and Global Head of McKinsey’s CEO Practice, to break down the cyclical nature of leadership from his book A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership. Drawing from...
info_outline
The Silent Trust Recession, CEO Automation Hype, and Why AI Is Making Workers Miserable
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
November 20, 2025: This episode breaks down six major stories shaping the future of work and the workplace in 2025. A new study reveals the rise of “Cold Work”—a breakdown of trust between employees and managers marked by hidden behaviors, disengagement, and rising hostility. Google CEO Sundar Pichai makes headlines by claiming the CEO role may be “one of the easier things” for AI to replace, adding fuel to the debate about automation and leadership. The Wall Street Journal reports that the AI boom has become “the most joyless tech revolution ever,” with worker anxiety...
info_outline
Layoff Chaos, AI Irrationality, Gen Z’s Double-Major Gamble, and the Global RTO Divide
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
November 19, 2025: Amazon and Target stumble through chaotic new layoff tactics, Sundar Pichai warns that the AI boom may be tipping into irrational exuberance, and U.S. and European banks reveal two very different—yet equally successful—approaches to return-to-office. We also unpack the alarming collapse of foundational math skills on college campuses, why leaders are outsourcing performance reviews to AI, and why Gen Z’s double-major explosion may matter less than what they can actually show and build. ----------- Looking for what actually moves the needle on performance and...
info_outline
AI Adoption Stalls, Ghost Jobs Surge, Gen Z Misunderstood, and New 2026 Work Trends Every Leader Must Know
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
Novemner 18, 2025: Today’s episode breaks down seven of the most important stories shaping the future of work. We explore why AI adoption is stalling inside organizations—and why companies are turning to internal influencers to drive real behavior change. We look at the surge in “ghost job” postings that are distorting the labor market and frustrating job seekers, and we explore the surprising history of the 40-hour workweek and whether it still makes sense in the age of AI. Next, we dive into brand-new data from Glassdoor’s Worklife Trends 2026 report, which reveals rising...
info_outline
CAVA’s Chief People Officer on How to Turn Culture Into Action
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
Growth tests the soul of every organization. As companies expand, consistency often replaces compassion—but CAVA proves you can scale without losing humanity. With 400 restaurants and 12,000 team members, CAVA has built a culture that’s as grounded as it is consistent through a people framework rooted in heart, health, and humanity. In this episode, I sit down with Kelly Costanza, Chief People Officer of CAVA, to unpack exactly how they’ve done it—diving into their MVC framework (Mission, Values, and Competencies) that turns ideals into action. We explore their recognition systems like...
info_outline
Meta’s New AI Performance Rules, the Vanishing Career Ladder, and the Hidden Future of Work
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
November 14, 2025: Today’s episode breaks down six major stories shaping the future of work and employee experience. We look at how unclear corporate policies are pushing employees into a shadow AI underground, why Meta is rewriting performance reviews around AI-driven impact, and how higher education is scrambling to rebuild workforce pathways for an AI-first world. We also explore why companies predict the toughest job market in years for the Class of 2026, Silicon Valley’s renewed push for universal basic income as automation accelerates, and the rise of “polyworking” as more people...
info_outline
Skilled-Trades Crisis, Musk’s Trillion-Dollar Targets, 2026 Workplace Trends, and the Return of College Degrees
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
November 13, 2025: Ford’s CEO warns that the U.S. is entering a skilled-trades crisis as thousands of high-paying technical jobs sit vacant. Elon Musk’s unprecedented trillion-dollar compensation package reveals the extreme performance targets Tesla must hit—ranging from 20 million vehicles a year to the deployment of a million robots. Glassdoor releases its top workplace trends for 2026, highlighting the rise of transparency, internal mobility, and human-centric leadership. And new reporting from The Wall Street Journal shows that skills-based hiring is fading as companies quietly...
info_outline
PwC’s Workforce Divide, AI Agents at Work, and Amazon’s $2.5B Skills Bet
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
November 12, 2025: PwC’s 2025 Global Workforce Survey exposes a growing gap between empowered and excluded workers. Across Australia, employees are already facing the reality of AI-driven job disruption. A WIRED feature explores a startup run entirely by AI agents—including executives—raising new questions about what leadership looks like when teammates aren’t human. Amazon announces a massive $2.5 billion investment to upskill 50 million people worldwide. New research from Yahoo UK and Modern Sciences shows AI is reshaping pay and opportunity, rewarding those who work with...
info_outline
Why 600 Quit Paramount, Palantir Rejects College, and IT Joins HR to Manage AI
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
November 11, 2025: IT and HR are joining forces to manage the chaos AI is creating inside companies. A new white-collar gig economy is emerging as professionals get paid to train algorithms. Paramount’s return-to-office mandate backfires, with 600 employees choosing severance instead. In India, workers are turning to AI as a career ally, redefining ambition around adaptability. Irish parents are split over whether creativity or coding will prepare kids for the future. And Palantir is skipping universities altogether, hiring high-school grads through its Meritocracy Fellowship. ...
info_outline
Uber's Chief Technology Officer Reveals The Secrets To Staying Human Through The AI Change
Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan
Uber moves more than 36 million trips a day, a scale that would overwhelm most systems. But as AI reshapes every corner of business, even a tech giant like Uber must evolve faster than ever. The real question is, how do you lead an organization this massive through an AI revolution without losing reliability, human connection, or trust? In this episode, I sit down with Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber’s Chief Technology Officer for Mobility and Delivery, to explore the leadership blueprint driving Uber’s AI-powered transformation. He shares how Uber is transforming its software engineering...
info_outlineAI is tearing through corporate America — and this time, it’s coming for white-collar jobs. Tens of thousands of office workers are being laid off as automation and efficiency pressures reshape how companies operate. Amazon’s latest restructuring shows that the era of middle management may be ending, while new data reveals why strong employee experience is the single biggest factor keeping talent from walking out the door.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon doubles down on the return to office, arguing that mentorship and innovation depend on proximity. Yet, as companies slash management layers to cut costs, research from HR Dive warns productivity and culture are taking a hit. And in the background, a new hiring trend is emerging — one where skills matter more than age, giving older workers a second act in the modern workplace.
Across these stories, a clear signal emerges: the future of work is being rebuilt in real time — flatter, faster, and more human than before.
________________
Stop patching problems and start designing an intentional workplace. The 8 Laws of Employee Experience gives you the how. Preorder here: 8EXLaws.com